Demoph wrote: ↑

September 4th, 2020, 4:53 pm

Nolan had absolute control over the film. This is what he wanted to do. This is an experimental blockbuster. Now that I think of it, it's may be even more experimental than Dunkirk. Nolan doesn't care if people have time to understand or can hear the characters. He just want them to feel the movie.
It's all in the interview Nolan did for French Magazine Premiere two months ago:
-telling a story that can only be told through cinema
-the fact that film when you look at the successive frames, is the only way you can actually see time, like a fourth dimension, an idea that has obsessed Nolan
-having the "mise en scène" be entirely depending on the concept, and the concept being expressed through the "mise en scène" and not the plot (Inception) or the editing (Dunkirk, Memento).

This is very interesting. Didn’t know about it. Based on people’s reviews and complains, it seems it might be very intentional on his part after reading your post.

Demoph wrote: ↑

September 4th, 2020, 4:53 pm

Nolan had absolute control over the film. This is what he wanted to do. This is an experimental blockbuster. Now that I think of it, it's may be even more experimental than Dunkirk. Nolan doesn't care if people have time to understand or can hear the characters. He just want them to feel the movie.
It's all in the interview Nolan did for French Magazine Premiere two months ago:
-telling a story that can only be told through cinema
-the fact that film when you look at the successive frames, is the only way you can actually see time, like a fourth dimension, an idea that has obsessed Nolan
-having the "mise en scène" be entirely depending on the concept, and the concept being expressed through the "mise en scène" and not the plot (Inception) or the editing (Dunkirk, Memento).

Well said, you're absolutely right.

Demoph wrote: ↑

September 4th, 2020, 4:53 pm

Nolan had absolute control over the film. This is what he wanted to do. This is an experimental blockbuster. Now that I think of it, it's may be even more experimental than Dunkirk. Nolan doesn't care if people have time to understand or can hear the characters. He just want them to feel the movie.
It's all in the interview Nolan did for French Magazine Premiere two months ago:
-telling a story that can only be told through cinema
-the fact that film when you look at the successive frames, is the only way you can actually see time, like a fourth dimension, an idea that has obsessed Nolan
-having the "mise en scène" be entirely depending on the concept, and the concept being expressed through the "mise en scène" and not the plot (Inception) or the editing (Dunkirk, Memento).

That may be true, but that may not be the best type of movie to help reopen theaters after a long delay. People are looking for easy escapism right now.

radewart wrote: ↑

September 4th, 2020, 6:44 pm

Demoph wrote: ↑

September 4th, 2020, 4:53 pm

Nolan had absolute control over the film. This is what he wanted to do. This is an experimental blockbuster. Now that I think of it, it's may be even more experimental than Dunkirk. Nolan doesn't care if people have time to understand or can hear the characters. He just want them to feel the movie.
It's all in the interview Nolan did for French Magazine Premiere two months ago:
-telling a story that can only be told through cinema
-the fact that film when you look at the successive frames, is the only way you can actually see time, like a fourth dimension, an idea that has obsessed Nolan
-having the "mise en scène" be entirely depending on the concept, and the concept being expressed through the "mise en scène" and not the plot (Inception) or the editing (Dunkirk, Memento).

That may be true, but that may not be the best type of movie to help reopen theaters after a long delay. People are looking for easy escapism right now.

I think there will be people who find the film to be a form of escapism. They won’t be looking for every little detail and even more when this movie is an action one. If it was something like interstellar it would be more risky perhaps. I believe that’s why Nolan worked this film the way he did because he probably thought the action could keep a wider audience interested despite the possible experimental side. Will it work? (In terms of box office) Only time will tell.

radewart wrote: ↑

September 4th, 2020, 6:44 pm

Demoph wrote: ↑

September 4th, 2020, 4:53 pm

Nolan had absolute control over the film. This is what he wanted to do. This is an experimental blockbuster. Now that I think of it, it's may be even more experimental than Dunkirk. Nolan doesn't care if people have time to understand or can hear the characters. He just want them to feel the movie.
It's all in the interview Nolan did for French Magazine Premiere two months ago:
-telling a story that can only be told through cinema
-the fact that film when you look at the successive frames, is the only way you can actually see time, like a fourth dimension, an idea that has obsessed Nolan
-having the "mise en scène" be entirely depending on the concept, and the concept being expressed through the "mise en scène" and not the plot (Inception) or the editing (Dunkirk, Memento).

That may be true, but that may not be the best type of movie to help reopen theaters after a long delay. People are looking for easy escapism right now.

That's right, but from Nolan's perspective, the audience has followed in all his crazy ideas. I mean a movie as experimental as Dunkirk making more than 500 million is insane. So I guess, he just thought, if they've gone so far, they can follow him a little further. He also thought that the first hour made it less risky than Dunkirk probably, but the second half is just so insane...

radewart wrote: ↑

September 4th, 2020, 6:44 pm

That may be true, but that may not be the best type of movie to help reopen theaters after a long delay. People are looking for easy escapism right now.

That's a valid outlook on what people are likely expecting in the theaters during a pandemic. I don't think any of Nolans films do this though so maybe Tenet would have been better to release maybe in a month or two.

Personally, I could not have been happier to sit in Dolby to watch TENET first after months of agony.

Demoph wrote: ↑

September 4th, 2020, 7:14 pm

radewart wrote: ↑

September 4th, 2020, 6:44 pm

Demoph wrote: ↑

September 4th, 2020, 4:53 pm

Nolan had absolute control over the film. This is what he wanted to do. This is an experimental blockbuster. Now that I think of it, it's may be even more experimental than Dunkirk. Nolan doesn't care if people have time to understand or can hear the characters. He just want them to feel the movie.
It's all in the interview Nolan did for French Magazine Premiere two months ago:
-telling a story that can only be told through cinema
-the fact that film when you look at the successive frames, is the only way you can actually see time, like a fourth dimension, an idea that has obsessed Nolan
-having the "mise en scène" be entirely depending on the concept, and the concept being expressed through the "mise en scène" and not the plot (Inception) or the editing (Dunkirk, Memento).

That may be true, but that may not be the best type of movie to help reopen theaters after a long delay. People are looking for easy escapism right now.

That's right, but from Nolan's perspective, the audience has followed in all his crazy ideas. I mean a movie as experimental as Dunkirk making more than 500 million is insane. So I guess, he just thought, if they've gone so far, they can follow him a little further. He also thought that the first hour made it less risky than Dunkirk probably, but the second half is just so insane...

I think he has addressed before the fact that he wants to push the audience a little further since with each film it feels for him they have been more open to new and experimental approaches, and I remember him saying something along the lines of believing in the audience’s ability to being more receptive to these things step by step. That’s right, Dunkirk was a great example of that.

4N Legend wrote: ↑

September 4th, 2020, 7:30 pm

radewart wrote: ↑

September 4th, 2020, 6:44 pm

That may be true, but that may not be the best type of movie to help reopen theaters after a long delay. People are looking for easy escapism right now.

That's a valid outlook on what people are likely expecting in the theaters during a pandemic. I don't think any of Nolans films do this though so maybe Tenet would have been better to release maybe in a month or two.

Personally, I could not have been happier to sit in Dolby to watch TENET first after months of agony.

the user reviews speak for themselves, imo


-Vader

Vader182 wrote: ↑

September 4th, 2020, 7:31 pm

4N Legend wrote: ↑

September 4th, 2020, 7:30 pm

radewart wrote: ↑

September 4th, 2020, 6:44 pm

That may be true, but that may not be the best type of movie to help reopen theaters after a long delay. People are looking for easy escapism right now.

That's a valid outlook on what people are likely expecting in the theaters during a pandemic. I don't think any of Nolans films do this though so maybe Tenet would have been better to release maybe in a month or two.

Personally, I could not have been happier to sit in Dolby to watch TENET first after months of agony.

the user reviews speak for themselves, imo


-Vader

I meant if the general audience is looking for an easy escapism then I wouldn't say the high octane battery Tenet qualifies (but the term varies person to person). Most user reviews I've seen are positive, but that kind of comes from the audience that actively seeks to go to the theaters. There's a large crowd that view the theaters as a leisurely activity that they don't care about during a pandemic. That's probably the easy escapism crowd that might not find Tenet favorable

review time:

Tenet is a delirious, exhilarating ride with some of the best action I've ever seen. Every minute hits with sensory assault and spectacle, with mad scientist plotting that flies too close to the sun in a way only Chris Nolan can. As a film it falters, but as a"CINEMA!" experience it is magnificent. However, Tenet was the wrong movie to reopen cinemas: it's arty blockbuster on the chassis of Nolan's least accessible, most oppressively icy film. What it reveals in Nolan's strengths with concept, style and action, it exposes in his weakness with character, plot, dialogue. It is a bizarre medley of mastery and misstep.

It is a deliberately opaque movie; murky rules are quickly established and just as quickly broken and a plot that makes little sense via visual or muffled dialogue. The characters, or lack-thereof, are husk-people that lack psychology, arcs, change or catharsis. Lacking catharsis is key, as all of Nolan's movies climax with an "aha" feeling of cohesion tied to character (reunion, revelation, etc) so when Tenet gets where it's going, you feel ...empty. There's an unrelenting hollowness to Tenet that's both blessing and curse, and while I engaged with that despairing chilliness, it's another door the general audience may not walk through.

Most disappointing of all is that Tenet is the first Nolan film without a soul. The biggest disappointment isn't that its quantum maze is confusing--I loved feeling lost in its tangled web--it's that the ambiguities you're left with are technical rather than philosophical. It's a dazzling, alienating puzzle, and what innuendo of depth and meaning may sit beneath Tenet's temporal seas, is ultimately handwaved in its rush to the credits.
Everyone does good work down the line, performance, lensing, score, but most impressive was Nolan wielding the exquisite visual control of Dunkirk and applying it to heists and car chases, and the time-inversed fist fight is the best brawl since the bathroom in Fallout. All in all, it's a visual and somatic thrill that doubles as a minor disappointment and his worst movie since Insomnia.

It's an 8/10 from me.


-Vader